Oh Foo... we are under the weather

And I don't mean the rain! We are talking about the contagious nasty known as the flu, which is everywhere this time of year.

One of the greatest flu-fighters is soap. It sounds odd, I imagine, 'soap for health'... but in fact the act of hand washing with soap, is one of the greatest single advances in medicine.

Before soap and later, before the discovery of microbes and the idea of 'germs' became common knowledge, medical procedures from the common to the extreme were performed with no attention to cleanliness. Not only the environs in which treatment was done, but the hands of the healer were often filthy and doctors went from patient to patient without washing, as did the others who attended the wounded and ill. Little did they know that they carried with them the infection and contagious disease that often spread wildly among their charges. It was actually in fairly recent history that cleanliness became 'scientifically' accepted as a means of preventing disease.

You may have heard this anecdote: "Sometime during the 19th century, a doctor discovered that if he performed a simple procedure when assisting women in labor, their mortality rate was cut in half (this was at a time when childbirth was among the leading causes of death for women). He shared his findings with other doctors, who, much to his dismay, ignored his advice despite solid evidence that supported his findings. Only much later, after other researchers had come to the same conclusion, did doctors begin to adopt the practice... of washing their hands." (Thanks to Don Wangberg of Fair Oaks, CA. for contributing this).

More than two million children still die from diarrheal disease in developing countries every year. A review in The Lancet Journal suggests that "a surprising 42-47% of all diarrhea could be prevented if people washed their hands with soap. This makes hand washing more effective than water supply, fly control or sanitation improvement in preventing diarrheal diseases. There is growing evidence that hand washing also works to prevent acute respiratory tract infections, which are the biggest infectious killers in the world today."

And just last night on the National News, they capped the article on the current flu cases with a reminder that the best preventative is washing your hands several times a day.

"Most infectious diseases are spread by contact, either person-to-person, or by touching surfaces harboring germs," said U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona. "Proper hand cleaning is the best prevention against communicable illness."

What happens if you do not wash your hands frequently? You pick up germs from other sources and infect yourself when you:
* Touch your eyes
* Or your nose
* Or your mouth.
One of the most common ways people catch colds is by rubbing their nose or their eyes after their hands have been contaminated with the cold virus.
Yet in the United States today several studies have shown that 20% to 50% of us do not wash our hands after using public restrooms.

Doctors warn that it is critical to wash your hands before eating, when preparing food, when you or someone around you is sick, after touching animals, and after using the bathroom, and to do it correctly.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the following technique:
• First wet your hands and apply liquid or clean bar soap. Place the bar soap on a rack and allow it to drain.
• Rub your hands vigorously together and scrub all surfaces.
• Continue for 15 - 20 seconds or about the length of a little tune. It is the soap combined with the scrubbing action that helps dislodge and remove germs.
• Rinse well and dry your hands with clean towel.

The most recent CDC guidelines for hand hygiene for practitioners in health care settings basically sums it up: wash your hands with soap and water. Additionally, use other hand hygiene preparation as called for.
It appears the key is "additionally" use other preparations. It seems that if your hands are even slightly dirty the other chemicals are not as effective. Everything seems to indicate that plain old soap and water remain the best all around health tool.

Taking care of your health includes eating right, getting fresh air and exercise, and washing well to ward off those sneaky microbes. Soap is your ally on the road to a healthy life! See all our excellent soaps for your health and pleasure.

Swine flu update - April 30: for current information, go to the Center for disease Control website: www.cdc.gov or The California Department of Public Health: www.cdph.ca.gov,both have up to date information specific to many situations including for schools, healthcare, home and more.

Billions and billions...

We used to imitate Carl Sagan using that term to describe the seemingly infinite stars in the universe. Back then it seemed like the ultimate huge number and, like "millions and millions" came to express an unimaginably large amount, without anyone really understanding what that amount really was.

These days the world has changed. We now talk in terms of unimaginably large numbers to define real amounts that we still have trouble understanding. As of today, Feb. 16, 2009, the world population is estimated to be 6,706,993,152. That is: 6 billion, 706 million, 993 thousand, 152. Wow. The United States alone has 305,830,170 (305 million) people.

With all this economic bailout, recovery, and stimulus talk throwing around gargantuan sums like $787,000,000,000 (787 billion), folks are often lost trying to decipher exactly how much this is. This leads to comments you see proposing that if they just gave the money to the citizens we would all be millionaires. Not so. These enormous sums are not so enormous as that. Distributed to every person in America using the population figure above, that would only be $2573.32 each. Not so much after all.

Part of the confusion arises from there being two scales for determining ridiculously large numbers. To paraphrase the Wikipedia page on this: The long and short scales are two different numerical systems used throughout the world:
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Short scale refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term greater than million is 1,000 times the previous term: "billion" means "a thousand millions", "trillion" means "a thousand billions", and so on.

Long scale refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term greater than million is 1,000,000 times the previous term: "billion" (from bi and million) means "a million to the power of two" or "a million millions", "trillion" (from tri and million) means "a million to the power of three" or "a million billions", and so on.
The difference between the two scales grows as numbers get larger. Million is the same in both scales, but the long-scale billion is a thousand times larger than the short-scale billion, the long-scale trillion is a million times larger than the short-scale trillion, and so on.

For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the United Kingdom uniformly used the long scale, while the United States of America used the short scale, so that usage of the two systems was often referred to as "British" and "American" respectively. In 1974 the government of the UK abandoned the long scale, so that both countries now exclusively apply the short scale interpretation in mass media and official usage.
So, one billion = 1,000,000,000, and 1 Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000.
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Fortunately, unless we are astronomers, other scientists, or government economists, most of us do not have to wrap our mind around numbers like this every day. But it is important we do have some sense of the scale they convey when following and voting on projects that effect us all.

The White House team promises to have a website where we can follow the expenditures of all this money. I plan to keep an eye on it. While I have faith in the intent and intelligence of President Obama's administration, I sometimes feel that a large sum of money given to the legislative branch is like a Pinata with kindergartners. They tend to get a little crazy with it.

UPDATE: 2/18/2009 here is the page on the White House site with the State by State information on the Recovery & Reinvestment Act

UPDATE #2 - Here it is, the official site: www.recovery.gov. If nothing else, this administration is keeping it's vow of transparency in Government. I'm impressed.

Perfumery...an Olfactory Harmony

Harmony: the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole.

I love the aspect of my job that encompasses perfumery – mixing blends of exotic essential oils to develop a new fragrance for our soap. While some would argue I become rather a mad scientist when mixing my olfactory potions, I think more of it as a kind of spiritual artistry, linked by history to temples and Gods.
Consider that the first use of fragrance was aromatic plant matter burned ritually as incense to the Gods and ancestors. Even the origin of the word, 'perfume', comes from the Latin 'per fumum' meaning "through smoke". The fragrant smoke was believed to carry prayers aloft, connecting people with their deities.
Early bathing, too, is linked to religion as a means of purifying oneself, linking both soap and fragrance to the spiritual process.

Mixing the various aromatic oils is much like composing a painting or piece of music. Balance and harmony can be achieved in a good composition. Deep, heavy scents such as Sandalwood or Patchouli form the base note, the dark elements that ground and fix the blend. The middle range is held by solid, but even, entities including Lavender, Jasmine, and Clary Sage. The bright, but fleeting, top notes are played by delicate oils like those from citrus. They are first to catch your nose before they give way to the aromatic melody that follows.
The trick is to find the balance between these aspects that plays the sense of smell as a chord of beautiful music tantalizes the ears. A true master creates olfactory symphonies and, indeed, the workplace display of essential oils is called a “perfume organ”. But, unlike music, the fragrant blend takes time to mature for all its harmony to become evident. When you first mix the essences the result can be harsh – the notes distinct and sometimes discordant. It takes time for them to meld and mellow and reveal their true character.

When making soap this need for patience in perfumery is magnified, as the chemical reaction and essence of the soap itself can mute or change the flavor of the blend. You make a wonderful aroma and yet, when added to soap, it becomes dull and listless. So you consider the notes which have dampened and accentuate or compliment them and try again, waiting the long time for the soap to make and cure. Needless to say, when you finally refine one to the point where you are pleased, it is a grand moment!

We hope you enjoy the fragrant melodies we have created for all our soaps. The ones which have required the most work, and of which we are proudest are: Aloe Vera/Kelp; Apricot Poppy; Forest; Lemon Shea Butter; Sweet Herb; Rose Clay; and now Oatmeal Spice.
See them on our soap page.

To read a brief history of perfume, see my article here.